in the oil and natural gas industries, it is a common practice to transmit fluid commodities from one site to another. Such practice generally consists of forming a trench between such sites, providing and placing a transmission pipeline in such trench and filling such trench with excavated soil to permanently bury such pipeline. Typically, following the formation of such trench, segments of such pipeline are transported to successive locations along and adjacent a trench line, mounted on skids or pallets in end-to end relation, welded together, transferred into the adjacent, opened trench and covered with earth to provide a buried transmission pipeline.
In the prior art, such skids or pallets used to support pipeline segments have consisted of stacks of solid, wooden beams. Typically, such beams have been formed and stored in warehouses or other storage sites distant from such pipeline routes, transported from distant storage sites to a location proximate a pipeline trench, repositioned by local machinery at spaced intervals along the opened trench, assembled at such sites onto skids or pallets for supporting the ends of successive sets of pipes to be welded together, disassembled upon welding and loading the welded segments into the trench and either transported to a successive site along the pipeline route to be used again or transported to a local storage area or a distant storage facility for further usage as described.
Such practice of use of such skid or pallet components has been found to be uneconomical. Initially, it is to be noted that such components being formed of wood are expensive. Such cost further is increased by the costs of storing, transporting to and from an assembly storage and use sites, handling at use sites and discarding damaged or worn components. Accordingly, the principal object of the present invention is to provide a component for the purpose as described which is more economical to produce and use than predecessor components.